Family Vacation 2010: The Rides

For months, in preparation and anticipation for our trip, Tyler has consistently asked to sit at the computer and watch video clips on the Disney World website of the rides. And his personal favorite was the clip of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. He would watch this over and over and over. Upon doing a little research we knew he needed to be 40 inches tall to ride and we also knew he was pretty darn close (it also recommended it for kids 8+....but 3 1/2 is close to 8 right?!). So whenever we needed to encourage him to eat his dinner we would kindly remind him that if we wanted to grow big and strong enough to go on the ride he needed to eat - and it worked like a charm.
Well the big day finally came. He proudly took daddy's hand and away they went to get in line while the rest of us found a good spot to watch. Only, the next thing you know, there is Tyler standing next to me looking so disappointed it broke my heart. Apparently the worker girl decided she needed to measure him - but she didn't just measure...she actually took out a credit card to flatten down his hair and informed PJ that he was 1/4 of an inch to short?!? Are you kidding me?!?! A 1/4 inch?!? She was dashing my sons dream because of a lousy 1/4 inch!?! We weren't sure what to do. But as we walked away to find something just as good I turned around to see that PJ and Tyler were missing...and I found them in line. PJ had whisked Tyler back through, stretched his neck a little and on they went. And Tyler was in heaven, loved it, and proudly gave me thumbs ups and high fives for being brave.

In fact, the only ride PJ couldn't get Tyler to go on was Splash Mountain. And the only reason he wouldn't go on that was because he had already been on the Kali River Rapids. Which had left him fairly soaked...

...and he decided maybe he didn't like being wet. So when he saw the water spraying from Splash Moutain he passed and opted for dry clothes that day.

Brynn, on the other hand, has always struggled with doing daring things. She isn't exactly a thrill seeker. So in the past she has refused to go on certain rides. Well we told her that if we were going to take her back to Disney that she would have to at least try all the rides we wanted her to. And she promised us that she would. And she was very brave and kept her word. Of course we knew what rides we should dare to bring up and didn't ask her to do anything that was questionable. But we did ask her to challenge herself a little when we arrived at Mickey's Toontown and Tyler wanted to ride on the Barnstormer rollercoaster. But she kept her promise and went...

...you can't really tell but PJ and Tyler are in the very back and Brynn is in the one right in front of them - ALL BY HERSELF - only her hand and top of her head are sticking out. And when she walked off with a scowl on her face she said she did what she said, she tried it, and she was able to decide that she didn't like roller coasters and wouldn't be going on any more. And that was fine with us. So Tyler went on again without her.

But there were plenty of more rides and lots of laughs and good times...

But for three years running, the #1 top ride remained the Dumbo ride...